This specification includes an Appendix which includes 133 pages. The appendix includes computer source code of one preferred embodiment of the invention. In other embodiments of the invention, the inventive concept may be implemented in other computer code, in computer hardware, in other circuitry, in a combination of these, or otherwise. The Appendix is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and is considered to be a part of the disclosure of this specification.
A CD-ROM containing appendix A, source code, filed on Jul. 14, 1998.
The present invention relates to a computer implemented system for capturing and processing an image of a stack of gambling chips for counting the number of chips and determining the value of each within the stack.
In the casino business there is an established reward/perk system that is used to determine the level of complimentary benefits valued customers should receive. Presently, this system is managed and performed by a person such as a casino supervisor/floor manager. The supervisor/floor manager keeps detailed notes about certain players and tries to determine over an extended period, the length of time a player gambles, the total amount of money bet in one sitting, the average amount wagered at each bet, etc. By knowing the value of a player""s wagers and their gambling habits, the casino decides which players are to receive complimentary benefits. The level of benefits is determined by a player""s level of gambling.
Presently, a player""s level of gambling is determined solely by the notes of the gambling floor supervisor/manager. This is a very subjective system that is often difficult to maintain because a floor/manager cannot watch all players at all times to get accurate information on betting habits.
There is a need for a system that assists gambling operations at casinos in accurately tracking the gambling habits of its customers. Such a system would be helpful to a casino by making the reward/perk system more consistent. The reward/perk system would better serve its purpose because the guess work would be taken out of determining a player""s gambling habits. Knowing exactly the length of the time played, amount of money bet and average amount wagered at each bet would be very helpful in providing the right incentives and complimentary benefits (free meals, limo, room, etc.) to the right players. Such a system could also be used to determine a player""s pre-established credit rating.
In the past, gambling chip recognition systems such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,589 to Storch et al involved counting gambling chips and detecting counterfeit chips using a binary code placed on the edge of the chip. The system is designed to count chips and detect counterfeits at a gaining table while the chips are in a rack. Using this data, a casino could monitor the number of available chips and other statistical information about the activity at individual tables. One of the problems with the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,589 is that the system requires the disc-like objects, such as gambling chips, coins, tokens, etc., have machine readable information encoded about the periphery thereof. Another system having similar problems is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,081 to Fisher. It describes a gambling chip with a circular bar code to indicate the chips denomination, authenticity and other information. The chip validating device rotates the chip in order to read the circular bar code.
The above mentioned prior art systems are particularly cumbersome in that they require chips to be housed within a particular system and rotated to be read or positioned at the right angle or in a rack so that the information can be taken from the periphery of the chips. There is a need for a system that can determine the value of gambling chips without encoding the periphery of each chip to enable system determination of its value. There is a need for a system that can determine the value of a chip without it being housed within a special reading device. There is a need for a system that can read a conventionally styled, conventionally fabricated chip that is positioned at any angle on a gaming table in the betting position. Such a system could cut down on casino expenses by deleting the cost to encode such chips with readable information.
The present invention is a casino gambling chip recognition system that provides for the automatic determination of the number of chips within a stack of gambling chips and the value of each chip within the stack through the use of a classification scheme stored in the computer wherein the classification scheme may utilize data (parameters) related to the geometry, color, feature pattern and size of each type (value) of chip in a preselected family of chips. The classification scheme data is used as a reference for a real time captured image of the stack of gambling chips. The system captures an image of the stack of gambling chips and processes the image by first detecting the boundaries of each chip in the image and then analyzing the degree of consistency between the data extracted from a given chip""s area within the image and the classification scheme""s parameters for all possible chip types. The system assigns the chip the value for which the classification scheme""s parameters are most consistent with the data extracted from that chip""s area within the image, provided that the degree of consistency is greater than some predefined minimum acceptable degree of consistency. If none of the classification parameters for any chip type are sufficiently consistent with the extracted data for a given chip in the image, that chip is assigned an xe2x80x9cundefinedxe2x80x9d value. When the analysis of the extracted data from each chip position in the image of the stack has been completed, the system displays the total number of chips which were found and their total monetary value, obtained by summing all the defined and assigned chip values from that image. The system also provides the communication of the number and value of chips wagered by players to a main computer for storage in a centralized player data base. It may also log the occurrences of chips for which an assigned value could not be defined.